CHAPTER 5

"Good gods, you guys seriously must be part goat or something to make it up and down those flipping mountains!" I groaned at him.

His answer, of course, was just a hiss and a wave as he began walking towards the village. I trudged behind him, running my hands through the grass on either side of the path. It was soft as fur and tickled my fingers as I walked. I reached down and plucked a piece of it shocked at the sweet smell that drifted up from it.

As I gazed around, I realized something odd, or odd for my sense of normal. This field was obviously the main road in and out of town. So why wasn’t there a pathway for travelers? I purposely stepped hard on some of the grass blades to see what would happen. The minute my foot moved; the grass bounced back up as if nothing had happened.

This place was amazing, I thought as I played with the blade. I didn’t know if my shock was wearing off, or maybe I had buried it deep within my mind. Either way, with my head clearer, I finally had the chance to see the beauty of this place. I was in awe of every new thing I saw that was so vastly different from my own world.

Loud echoing trumpets jarred me too quickly from my deep thoughts. I jumped three feet in the air and screamed so loud it wouldn’t have shocked me if I had been louder than the horns. My escort looked back at me, and I could have sworn I saw the man roll his eyes at me. Though that would have been such a human thing for him to do. He waved his hands impatiently at me, indicating I must hurry.

I looked up at the village to find two large gates wide open. The marble they were made of matched the walls so well, that if they were standing open, no one would be able to tell the difference between them. Suddenly there was a roar so loud that the ground seemed to shake. My feet skidded to a halt at the sound, no doubt what it was designed to do. My escort, however, responded with a roar of his own that was quieter but no less powerful.

The moment he walked us through the gates, I was surrounded by his people. Women, children, and men encircled me so fast that I didn’t have a chance to get away.

They all looked a lot like my escort. Narrow faces, long hair, scaled skin, and the same odd, large-shaped eyes. They each even had similar markings around their eyes and cheeks. Several had extra markings in addition to the golden ones near their eyes which were the same odd shape as my escorts.

However, that is where the similarities ended. After that, every single person was different. Different hairstyles, different clothing choices, different features. Most green with bright golden tinges. However, others held slight blue tinges and other prominent colors.

Overwhelmed, I tried to run, but every turn I took was cut off by a group of these people hissing at me. I fell to my knees and hid my face in fear, knowing, just knowing these people were going to kill me.

“ENOUGH!” shouted a loud voice over the crowd.

All at once, the hissing stopped, and I sensed rather than saw the people back away from me. I peeked out from behind my fingers and saw that a path had opened off to my side. A set of knee-high brown boots came into view moments before a hand reached down for my own. Cautiously, I allowed my hands to drop as I looked up at the owner of the helping hand, and I could not believe my eyes when I did.

“Erik,” I whispered in disbelief.

The man’s familiar brown eyes clouded with confusion for a moment, then cleared.

“Yes. How do you know my name?” he asked in shock.

“Erik. It’s me. It’s your sister. It’s Mara,” I whispered, my voice clouding with emotion.

The man reared back and stared at me in complete disbelief like I was an alien. That thought almost made me laugh. Me? Alien? Well, I guess here I was, whereas they were alien to me!

The man, my brother, just stared at me like I was insane. Finally, he barked, or rather hissed hard, at the man behind me and pointed at me, indicating he take me to the castle.

My escort said something back as if he was trying to defend me but was quickly shot down. He grabbed me gently under my arms to help me up, then led me through the crowd quickly.

“Where are you taking me?” I demanded uselessly.

He hissed in response as if he understood my words. Or maybe he was trying to silence me, I wasn't sure.

I tried to pull away. However, his grip on my arm tightened just a bit. Not enough to hurt yet, enough to let me know that I would not be able to break free of him. With a sigh, I stopped fighting and took in my surroundings. The village looked like something straight out of a medieval reenactment. The only difference being that the buildings were well taken care of and mostly made of white marble instead of stone and wood.

Before I could make any other observations, we were inside the castle. My escort took me down a side hallway that led to another and another, then up a stairwell. By the time the man had stopped, I was lost and would have sworn that he had doubled back a few times. He halted outside a door that was being guarded by two men dressed almost exactly like him.

They had the same kind of hairstyle, only pulled back a bit more. The guards were wearing golden shirts under their white vest paired with black leather pants, and a sword was strapped to their sides. The hilts glittered gold with a few random diamonds that looked incredibly genuine, glistening from the tops.

The man hissed at them, and they opened the door revealing a rather well-kept, but still tiny and barren cell.

They were putting me in a cell.

I struggled for real and begged him not to leave me in there. I even smacked his hard chest a few times. However, all that served to do was hurt my hand.

Much to my surprise, the man pushed me gently to the bed despite my screams, curses, and well-placed hits. He backed out of the room slowly with a look on his face that told me he would rather be doing anything other than locking me in this room. I didn’t honestly think he was going to do it, all the way up until the door shuttered closed on me.

The minute it was closed, I rushed to it and began pounding on it screaming to speak to my brother.

The guards were very professional and well trained, ignoring me as if my shouts were nothing more than the wind. Might as well have been with how much they understood me.

When my throat began to hurt, I stopped. With a long, defeated sigh went and sat on the bed. “Well… that went well.”